Lao Kane
Lao Kane ----36, Pirate Queen /Slaver and one hundred and eighth Captain of the POJ. Personality Madame Lao possesses both uncommon charisma and a true gift for philosophy. While Lao may not have spent as much time in the Outside world, she does a lot of reading, and is quite well educated, in spite of her early upbringing as a warrior. There is quite a lot of free time on long sea voyages for doing little else but study the things that the outside world has to offer, and Lao has had many long discussions with her captives on the philosophical ramifications of her actions. Madame Lao possesses both uncommon charisma and a true gift for philosophy. While Lao may not have spent as much time in the Outside world, she does a lot of reading, and is quite well educated, in spite of her early upbringing as a warrior. There is quite a lot of free time on long sea voyages for doing little else but study the things that the outside world has to offer, and Lao has had many long discussions with her captives on the philosophical ramifications of her actions. In fact she enjoys it as she has heard all of current Pop Psychological terms currently in vogue and is looking for someone who has an original idea that they could use to imply that there is something morally wrong with how she conducts my affairs. Instead of rehashing arguments that she has heard ad nauseum until she could recite them in her sleep. Lao sees her profession as helping others to achieve their liberation from their old tired ideals and preconceptions. What she does isn’t in violation to the rules of civilized behavior and the Egalitarian ideal that every man and woman is a free and sovereign individual with inalienable rights that must be Universally respected. As someone of Chinese descent she knows this concept is far from the norm for human existence. She doesn’t consider herself above the law but outside of the conventions under which civilized people prefer to live. Lao sees herself as perhaps the most liberated of souls because she acknowledges the existence of social inhibitions. Lao recognize how we are all victims to our own upbringing. We are products of the cultures that have molded our attitudes and philosophies into an obedient slave-mode in which we never ask the right questions or challenge the authority of self-proclaimed experts and authority figures who tell us how to behave, what to believe and just how far we may be permitted to function. Lao doesn’t see herself as casual rapist forcing herself on the unwilling, but as a professional at the pleasure trade. She deals in the exchange of goods like any other form of business. It is simply that the business that she deals in happens to be considered socially taboo that marks her as any different from a regular business woman Nabiki allegedly aspires to become which is why she considers them similar. Lao deals in a commodity that is highly valued by the wealthy and powerful, but these days she is extremely selective in choosing her clients. Lao doesn’t allow herself to feel much guilt these days, and it is hardly an asset to have a conscience about her actions in such matters, but she truly does care about her clients which is why giving Keiko to Chu Wan Phat was perhaps the one most regrettable thing that she has ever done in her life, excluding only her failure to heed her Great Grandmother's warnings about the Musk. While Lao doesn’t exactly hate men giving her past she doesn’t put to much trust in them as she sees them as having only one thing on their minds when it comes to woman. Which makes her come across as hypocritical. Lao uses her trade in human flesh to finance more domestic concerns she is trying to recreate the extended family atmosphere that she left behind in Joketsuzoku. However she is not recreating Joketsuzoku but the Musk dynasty itself in reverse. Lao’s curse comes with the fierce spirit of the tiger manifested in a certain type of hunger to which her normal self was blessedly not burdened. The Hunger, as she called it, was a source of dread and remorse that she had learned to coexist with. It was difficult controlling the Hunger on the best of occasions, but when she was angry or disturbed it was nearly impossible to repress that aspect of her Tiger nature. That meant that whoever was the object of her ire at the moment was usually the one to suffer. Appearance She stands nearly six feet even and is very well built with a rangy frame and wiry constitution. Her hair is pale blue-green, (the color of sea foam). She has a face reminiscent of Shampoo, only somewhat older with harder, more mature features. Lao fashioned herself after the likeness of the great Madam Ching. She wears a long-sleeved outfit that is slightly Chinese in basic cut, only styled more like some manner of tunic reminiscent of a seventeenth century sailor's outfit, complete with a tri-cornered hat with her long, hair hanging down to below waist level. There is a leather whip coiled on her hip. History Lao Kane was one of a pair of first-class warriors, much like Shampoo and Perfume in their day. She and Comb used to train regularly, which was appropriate for two sisters of the same social standing. Kho-Hom, who was two years her sister's senior, had married young to a man of the village who had caught her eye. Lao, unfortunately, was very proud and refused to lower herself to any man, believing no one in the village was worthy of her affections. Even then she was restless and wanted to see more of the world, so it was inevitable that she would turn to an outsider when at last she found a man worthy of her standards. It was tragedy indeed that the man she fell in love with came from the Musk dynasty, a warrior who was as powerful as the Tigers that had been his female ancestors. They met in a private challenge match that ended when this warrior, who went by the interesting name of Julep, defeated my granddaughter. Lao found herself all too willing to declare this man her husband and went gladly to the land of the Musk, where she appears to have been treated rather well for a time. Women of the Musk Dynasty are usually kept hidden away from the eyes of other men, but rather than throw her into his Harem her husband treated her like a prize. Julep doted upon her lavishly and gave her all manner of finery that for a time made Lao feel like a captive princess. But alas it was not to remain so forever. The tides of politics and ambition caused Julep to weigh the advantages of having an Amazon of her caliber in his thrall against the advantages that could be gained in using her as a pawn in his personal ambitions. He was advisor to then-Prince Garnet--father of the current Prince Herb--and he had great plans to help his Prince achieve the ages-old dream of conquering China. The political climate in China had shifted with a younger generation clamoring for reform while the entrenched old guard was clinging tenaciously to a withering political system. It was felt that a push in the right direction would shift the Mandate of Heaven from the Communists so someone who could pose as a symbol of fresh leadership and progress. To achieve this he came to view the Amazons as a key stepping stone to their advance into the limelight. It is believed what Julep was after were the secret lore safeguarded by the Elders of the tribe, which perhaps he meant to add to the already considerable knowledge that the Musk had accumulated over the centuries. Uniting the tribes under the leadership of his Prince might even have been the eventual goal of this plot, all that is known for sure is that he sent a secret message to the Elders oh behalf of Garnet in which he laid out terms for nominal peace that were actually a cover for his real plan of extracting certain concessions. He also dropped broad hints alluding to Lao being advanced in her pregnancy with the suggestion that dire things might happen to her if he was not granted his way. In desperation the Council commissioned an expedition that Cologne voluntarily headed to seek to know of Lao's status, and when she confronted Lord Julep he was all smiles and pleasantry. Prince Garnet and he spoke to the Amazon’s concerns at the time that all of China might be facing troubled times in the wake of the brutal crackdown being experienced in some of the major cities and neighboring Tibet. They outlined a bold scheme to consolidate both Amazon and Musk forces into a mutual defensive pact, citing our shared history and historical cultural ties. It seemed all very well and good on the surface, but beneath Cologne could see their ruthlessness and cunning. They had no interest in sharing power and actually sought to end our rivalry by absorbing the Nyanichiczu into their orbit. Cologne tried to prevail on Lao that she should leave with her before anything bad could happen to her or the child that she was about to deliver, but she foolishly did not believe Cologne’s warnings. Lao believed that her husband sincerely cared for her when Cologne could see that Julep was tiring of his wife and the novelty of their marriage. She was too independent minded for his tastes, too quick to voice her opinions and not content to live entirely as a submissive. Cologne made one last warning and Lao got very angry and denounced her. Cologne had to leave without her, wishing with all her strength that her could have dragged her granddaughter out of there before the inevitable happened. When the time at last came and Prince Garnet did not gain all that he wanted he tried to have Lao poisoned after she had given birth. When she proved too strong for the evil medicine they took her child away from Lao's very arms and had her cast into their personal play-chamber...a sort of Medieval dungeon used for interrogating prisoners. There Julep bared the hidden side of his true nature and subjected his wife to unspeakable horrors and Lao endured an ordeal made far worse by betrayal, denial and bereavement. Lao endured an almost daily ordeal that must have sapped her resources to their limit, but Lao was still an Amazon, and when she at long last saw what sort of a monster she had married her mind must have snapped because she eventually got loose and killed him, then escaped from the palace before the Prince and his minions could be alerted. She returned to the Amazons, but now they were faced with the most unwelcome of problems. Lao had rejected their help when it might have made a difference, believed sincerely in a man who was the avowed enemy of her people and--worse by far--she had committed violence against her husband, a transgression against all of Amazonian traditions. She was guilty of the unthinkable, of killing the father to her only child, and--more to the point--she now wanted them to help her liberate the child she had left behind, a son, from the Musk. By every right she could have demanded these things under better circumstances...but as fortunate would have it, this happened in the days following the Tianamen Massacre. With the crackdown then full underway a war between the Amazon’s and the Musk would have brought repression down upon all of their necks. For the good of the Nyanichiczu the council were reluctantly forced to refuse her entreaties. It was at that point that the shame Lao bore was in fact Amazon shame. Prince Garnet was swift in demanding her return for punishment for what he termed the murder of a trusted kinsman and member of the royal family. Even then the power that Garnet commanded was almost the equal to that of an Elder, so his threats carried some weight. There was no physical evidence to corroborate Lao's story of abuse and torture...her late husband had been too cunning in applying his brand of inhuman abuse so that there was hardly a mark on her besides a single brand that--it was claimed--had been the mark of princely affection between consensual adults. Given all of that the Council was forced--with the greatest reluctance--to reject Lao's claims and declare her an outcast. To satisfy the power-mad lust of a depraved would-be Emperor they cast Lao aside and told everyone that she was dead to her own family and house. They ordered her banished as a sort of mercy then told Prince Garnet that there was no longer an Amazon that bore her name. The name itself was forbidden by Council Edict, and thus they satisfied his need for vengeance and Prince Herb agreed to...overlook her transgression. Lao vowed to free her son, Breeze, from the Musk, and only three Amazons volunteered to come with her, Soon Li, Lotus and Blossom. Together they raided the Musk Palace and made off with Breeze, fleeing to the coastline. Soon Li went off on her own way while Lao and her friends tried to find ship passage to another land beyond the reach of the Musk and Amazons. By ill luck they wound up being shanghaied (in Shanghai, no less) and wound up on the Floating Piece of Junk (Formerly known as the Tung Chiao). Lao, Lotus and Blossom---had been prisoners held in bondage by the then-owner of the POJ, a cruel and cunning man who had used them poorly, right up until he saw the chance at offering Lao what he termed as 'her freedom' by playing him a card game with the POJ as the ultimate prize for the winner. To even Lao's own surprise she won, and promptly gained possession as the new owner of a cursed Junk whose ghosts were still quite living. Of course the former owner's sense of joy at being 'liberated' had come to a bad end---as had the man himself (whom she promptly ate in repayment for his cruel treatment). Lao took over the POJ and remade it into her ideal of what "Slavery" should be, and with it came to master the elemental spirits trapped on board by the enchantments of its original creator, Han Bolo, a Sorceror who had even trapped an Angel (EVA type) as his servitor, the Kraken. She prowls the seas in her magical vessel, which is larger on the inside than the outside and perpetually surrounded by a magical fog that gives it stealth capabilities. Abilities Lao was trained as a Master of the Water School of Elemental Martial arts by Soon Li. She has the ability to control water in nearly all its forms and has an elemental affinity for creatures born ofwater (fish, dolphins and Undines). Her martial arts skills are considerable and she has few equals as a Warrior, being a former Champion of her tribe at the age of 17. She had been trained as a possible successor for Cologne herself as a future matriarch of the Joketsuzoku. Lao’s cursed form is powerful indeed, long and lean with tightly woven muscles over a skeleton that was designed by nature to enable her kind to haul her kill into a tree. Largest and most powerful of all the great cats, pound for pound only the sleek leopard was stronger, and even lions knew well enough to give ground at their approach. And Lao was not just any five hundred-pound Siberian Tigress, she was a trained Martial Artist and those skills translated well into her new body, even though her construction was decidedly different. A normal Tiger could bring down a bull elephant with a little planning and foresight (not to mention a high place to leap down from), but Lao could take down a Veliciraptor with the swipe of one paw (she knew because she had once in the past, but that was a different story). She had worked hard to perfect her fighting style so that her body would be an asset and not a hindrance or limitation. Her training makes her even more dangerous than the Ronin. She can draw upon and channel the force of the universal medium, the element that breaks down mountains and flows without containment. Water is the Universal Solvent, it is incompressible, irresistible and unfathomable to the understanding of mortals. It absorbs everything without changing its substance. Strike a pool a thousand times and it will always return to the same form. The same is true with Lao. Strike her a thousand times and it will make no difference. Lao lives and breathes the Water School of Martial Combat. Using a modified form of Shaolin Tiger Fist she absorbs everything and overcomes by flowing around an opposing force. The Tiger employed Bone Strength with hard-slashing motions aimed at overwhelming an opponent from very close quarters. The key to her style is that it is passive-aggressive. Lao can only use her force to counter whatever force used against her. She also relies on illusions allowing her to conserve her powers and only use half the energy she appears to be using. She can, in fact, rest while an image of her absorbs some of the attacks, then use her recovered strength to catch her foes while they are distracted with pseudo-targets. However not all of her forces are passive and she is perfectly able to act as the aggressor. As captain of The Piece of Junk Lao is soul-bonded and contracted to the ship by a pact with the Neflim Avatar known to many as the Kraken. As its recognized human host, she has the resources of both the ship and the Avatar which---combined with her combat skills and knowledge of Oriental Magic---gives her a formidable reach and a major part to be played in the destiny of the once and future Nexus of the Japanese Islands. Category:Continuum-59343921